Child poverty is simply unacceptable and is damaging children's lives. Much more is needed to meet the government's commitment to end child poverty by 2020. By taking the actions we are calling for, the government would make a significant start towards achieving this goal and improving the lives of millions of children.

Unless you don't follow me on social media or you live in a cave, you'll know that I'm staying in Spain for a few weeks. Beyond the sun, sea, culture, language and everything else I love about this country; it has also marked some very significant aspects of my life.

Our major survey of British family finances finds that 15 million people are already showing signs of financial difficulty, 13million wouldn't have the savings to keep up with their essentials bills for a month if their income dropped by a quarter, and 16million would consider using unsecured credit to keep up with essentials.

More needs to be done to help students who are unable to cope financially to prevent them resorting to such drastic measures. It is possible women are being forced into, what is essentially, the sex industry by their lack of money and ability to fund their education.

Debt is only as bad as the harm that it causes, which is why the Demos report out today has created a 'Harm Index' measuring the impact of debt. It suggests ways that debt support should be tailored to the individual struggles individuals face, and also argues that lenders who cause the most harm face stronger penalties.

I'm being asked to pay back £1000 to a bank that has reportedly contributed to the national, if not global financial crisis, a bank who sold dead debt to profit from it. Who has the moral obligation to payback?

So lately I've been researching one of the world's more scary financial terms - debt consolidation - for a few reasons. Some of my female friends feel intimidated or afraid of their finances. They refuse to open bank statements and think they can just bury their heads in the sand and it'll all be OK.

Understanding the repercussions of everyday financial decisions is just the starting point for good money management. This, along with techniques such as budgeting and making the most of their income, enables students to become 'future capable.'

Language is very important and as we can see, getting it right can in some cases be a matter of life or death. And while I understand big companies need to chase people who do not pay their bills, they need to be accurate in the way they communicate with customers.

'Bulimic' spenders -purchase only to rush back to the shops, guilt-stricken to return what they've bought, once they realise they can't afford it or that it's not actually going to give them the lifestyle they want. Although their 'reverse shopping' habit keeps their finances under control they expose themselves to high stress levels and feelings of self-loathing.

As a secret report for the government has confirmed, to ensure the student loan book is profitable for private companies the cap on interest for repayments would need to be increased. This means graduates would effectively face a retrospective hike in the cost of their tuition fees.

This year the Tories are preparing a new, massive attack on students, which promise to be as regressive and damaging to the future of millions of people as the trebling of tuition fees has been - plotting to sell all our student loans to private debt collectors, who are hungry to make a profit out of saddling us with more debt than we signed up to. Students are, however, building a movement to stop the government in its tracks.

Britain is in the throes of a personal finance crisis. Dramatic figures out recently revealed that personal debt totals £1.43trillion and the average household debt is almost twice as high as a decade ago at £54,000. To some this would come as a surprise, but to many it is confirmation that they are not alone in their struggle.

I was born into a generation with the world at my fingertips, raised on the assumption that my financial prospects would be the same, if not greater, than those of my parents but instead the world we were told we could have, is out of reach; that career ladder we were all aiming to get on, is a high-chair away.

The average under 25-year-old who contacts StepChange has unsecured debt of £5,471. Small wonder growing numbers are falling into the clutches of parasitic payday lenders. In 2012, 42% of the charity's young clients had taken out a payday loan, rocketing up from 25% in 2011.